After starting their Olympic campaign on a disappointing note in the morning, the Indian table tennis players ended Saturday on a happy note with Manika Batra and Sutirtha Mukherjee moving into the second round of the women’s singles event at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium. The last time an Indian woman TT player had won a match in the Olympics was way back at the 1992 Barcelona Games.
Manika did not break a sweat while disposing of her Great Britain opponent Ho Tin-Tin 11-7, 11-6, 12-10, 11-9 in the first round. But Sutirtha, down 1-3, had to adapt and play smart against the higher-ranked Swede rival Linda Bergstrome. And the West Bengal girl did it in style for a 4-3 (5-11, 11-9, 11-13, 9-11, 11-3, 11-9, 11-5) win.
In contrast, the mixed doubles events in the morning were a huge disappointment, particularly after the Manika-Sharath Kamal duo had raised expectations during their qualification in Doha.
The Indian duo surrendered to the third-seeded pair of Lin Yun-Ju and Cheng I-Chin from Taipei, losing the match 8-11, 6-11, 5-11, 4-11.
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The Manika-Tin-Tin matchup may have brought some smiles back on the Indian faces, though it had turned out to be a one-sided affair with the English woman struggling throughout to find her feet.
Linda attacked right from the word go and notched up an easy win in the first game. In the second, Sutirtha took an 8-3 lead. Yet, the Swede came back strongly and came close to her rival at 8-9 before Sutirtha held her nerves to take the games 11-9. Despite Linda having an upper hand in the third, Sutirtha clawed her way back into the game, making it 9-all before the Swede winning on extended points, 13-11.
But the Indian changed her plans for the fifth game, completely outsmarting her opponent. In the next, a see-saw battle, Sutirtha managed to tie the match at 3-3. Displaying better skills and an array of strokes, Sutirtha led 5-1 in the decider. By that time the Swede’s body language had changed, leading to frustration and more unforced errors. Sutirtha’s patience paid in the end, and she won with plenty to spare.
In her second round tomorrow, Sutirtha will face off with the 42-year-old Chinese-born Yu Fu of Portugal, while Manika will play Ukraine’s Margaryta Pesotska, ranked 32.
As for the round of 16 mixed doubles, it proved to be a mismatch. The Indian duo started well to lead 5-1 only to concede the Taipei pair eight points on the trot after being caught in power-hitting and committing too many unforced errors.
In the men’s singles second round tomorrow, Sharath will take either Tiago Apolonia of Portugal or Olajide Omotayo of Nigeria, while Sathiyan, ranked 38, will meet either Brian Afanador of Puerto Rica or Lam Siu Hang of Hong Kong.
